Stephen A Smith – Talking Beyond Sports

I don’t watch ESPN or listen to sports talk so I didn’t know much about Stephen A Smith, but I did know who he was. Apparently he used to shout alot. I also hadn’t realized that Mr Smith had recently left ESPN to branch out in his career efforts to encompass more than just sports.

I was listening to the Mark Levin Show as I often do, and the guest was Stephen A Smith. And sounding quite conservative in his viewpoints I might add. (ie. He was making quite a bit of sense.) The audio from the show is here. The interview begins at the 18:15 mark.

I also found it on YouTube.

There’s a lot of video and audio on Stephen a Smith’s website – StephanA.com. Including an interesting clip with well-know black conservative Armstrong Williams. I think we’ll be hearing alot from Mr. Smith soon and on a lot more than sports.

Black Conservatives and Van Jones

There has been a lot of talk and concern, at least on the right, about President Obama’s “green jobs czar”, Van Jones. Jones has made varied questionable comments in the past, some recently, and has personally admitted to being a communist. I wanted to see what black conservatives had to say about Mr. Jones and his subsequent resignation.

Another Black Conservative has posted on this subject several times and has added a comment on Mr. Jones’ resignation. Conservative Black Woman and BlackInformant both have pointed out a rather amusing irony. The Truth In Black And Right comments on Van Jones being the “latest victim of Obamanomics.”

Be sure to check out Booker Rising for the “Bookerista Roundup” of black conservative posts about Van Jones.

The Hurricane Bill

Here in Florida we’ve gotten the first activity of the hurricane season in the last few days. And I’ve noticed something about myself. I’m so paranoid and worried about the crazy stuff our government is doing, every time I hear something about hurricane Bill I shudder. Just momentarily I think it must be some new meteorological legislation. The Hurricane Bill!!

I think they should be very careful about how they name these storms. We shouldn’t give these profligate politicians any ideas.

I’m Fishy!… I’m Fishy. Not!

I posted a few days ago about the new site ImFishy.com. A response to the White House blog requesting citizens to “flag” any emails or info on the web that seems fishy (in regards to information about the Obama administrations attempt to pass universal health care). Rather than waiting on someone to report us, a lot of us just decided to turn ourselves in straightaway and save the government some trouble. We’re not trying to hide our disagreement and opposition the the proposed government health care plan.

As you can imagine some dissenting viewpoints came into ImFishy.com in defense of the White House’s effort to try and keep track of the “disinformation.” (Some more civil than others.) In a remarkable, and unfortunately rather uncommon, show of integrity and openness, dissenting comments are not being removed but placed on their own page: I’m Fishy! Not! As I’m Fishy! states, this web site “…is not to debate the reformation of the health care system but rather our right to speak freely about it without fear of repercussion.”

Which brings me this question. Why do they need the email or website addresses? If they truly want to counter disinformation why wouldn’t they ask people what they’ve heard that seems fishy and provide them with the correct information? Because that would empower people! And that’s not what they want. (And not just this administration. All politicians are necessarily concerned with their power. Some just more egregiously than others.)

If the White House would have said they thought there was some disinformation among the opposition and they wanted to counter it with factual information that they would direct us to, I would have no problem whatsoever with that. It would elevate the debate by encouraging us to educate ourselves. (Dang, there’s that personal responsibility thing again.) But that’s not what they did. They took the predictable statist, third grade approach and asked us to snitch on fellow citizens. It’s their nature. “Hey, tell us about it and we’ll take care of it. Don’t worry about a thing. We’ll deal with these nasty people that disagree with us.” Facilitating government and not factual, rational argument is all they know.

If you disagree with the health care legislation being proposed, please Turn Yourself In. We’re still free to speak our minds here in the United States. If you disagree with the disageers, your voice will not be suppressed. How refreshing.

Who Is John Galt?

I just updated my Squidoo page “Who Is John Galt?” Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged is more relevant today than ever.

I Turned Myself In!

Recently the White House blog posted a request that you send them a message “if you get an email or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy.” In an attempt to keep track of the “disinformation about health insurance reform” the White House is asking all of us, United States citizens, to snitch on each other. Apparently it’s not acceptable to disagree with what our lofty, beneficent politicians are wanting to do to (oops, do for) us.

As usual, they are smearing the people that have honest disagreements and want answers from their representatives. So it must be stopped. We are now angry mobs and just pawns of the evil insurance companies. (The insurance companies are the latest boogie man they are demonizing.)

Being the patriotic and dutiful citizen that I am and not wanting to wait for someone else to find my fishy rumors and disinformation – I turned myself in! I sent this message to flag@whitehouse.gov:

“I would like to report myself for disseminating what you refer to as fishy disinformation concerning health insurance reform. Or any other name you use to refer to health care legislation.

As an American citizen I will lawfully oppose and speak out against any government action or legislation that I disagree with. I think it is despicable, brazen and dangerous for any government administration to ask for citizens to “snitch” on each other and to brand disagreement as disinformation.

You now have my email, IP address and can obtain other personal information to find me if you need to. If voicing my opinion has become a crime without my knowledge I will gladly be here when they come for me.

May God continue to bless the United States of America.”

I can’t remember being this mad at my government before. I knew I wouldn’t be the only one thinking of doing this and there seems to be a growing movement of self-reporting. Michelle Malkin has a post as does Brutally Honest.

But my favorite is a new site by my tagfoot friend: ImFishy.com. We’re having quite an interesting discussion on this topic over at tagfoot too.

Single Payer Health Care – Just A Step Away.

Congressman Barney Frank plainly states that he believes universal health care is the best way to get to a single payer system. Now it’s not surprising the Rep. Frank wants a single payer system, he’s an outspoken proponent of it. The notable part of this is the open admission that universal health care, which is what’s currently being proposed, is just a vehicle to get there.

This video was shot by a pro-single payer organization. They’re upset because congress is trying to pass universal health care and not a single payer plan. What is single payer? It is the complete government takeover of our health care system. The universal health care plan proposed supposedly retains a private sector option. Letting people choose between an insurance company or a government option. But we can see, when they speak honestly, that this will not be the case. The private sector options will cease to exist and government will control health care completely.

As Thomas Sowell wrote recently, when the mask slips off “we should never forget what we saw.”

FreeOurHealthCareNow.com

Vocabulary – Defenestrate

Note: These are periodic posts from my readings about one of the most exciting things in life – learning new words.
From The Measure Of All Things:

…unknown to (Jean-Baptiste-Joseph) Delambre [one of the main protagonists of the book.], some ten thousand Parisians had stormed the royal palace where the king was a virtual prisoner, set it on fire, and with the help of the turncoat Paris militia massacred six hundred of the king’s Swiss Guard, some by defenestration, others with cold steel.

Defenestrate. Who knew that it had a name other than – hey, throw that out the window! I also ran across this in Paris: Biography of a City by Colin Jones. Hmm also in France. I sense a theme.

A Timely Find – Are Cops Racist?

It’s interesting how sometimes you’ll stumble across something you were completely unaware of during a time when something related is going on in the world at large. While perusing the City Journal website (I was also unaware of the City Journal!) I found a short review of a book that is particularly interesting at the moment: Are Cops Racist? by Heather McDonald. (Published 2003.)

Given the uproar over the recent arrest of noted black scholar Henry Louis Gates, this would seem a very relevant subject. There is a lot of rhetoric and demagoguery, most notable from the President, and race is once again in the forefront of the news in the US. I long ago grew weary of the police and law enforcement officers being vilified.

Thank you ladies and gentlemen of police forces everywhere. You have a difficult job and you should know you are appreciated and respected.

BigJim

The Measure Of All Things

I just began The Measure Of All Things: The Seven-Year Odessy and Hidden Error That Transformed the World by Ken Adler. It’s science and kind of geeky, but it’s also history and a story of drama and peril. It had been talking to me for awhile (yes, the books on my shelves do that!) so I finally had to pick it up and make it a part of my life.

Then there was this in the Prologue. In setting up the story of the French savants attempting to establish a universal length of measure Adler observes:

“The fundamental fallacy of utopianism is to assume that everyone wants to live in the same utopia. France, it turns out, was not only the first nation to invent the metric system, she was also the first to reject it.” (italics mine.)

And then in the next paragraph:

“What neither advocates or opponents of the metric sustem could have known is that a secret error lies at the heart of the metric system – an error perpetuated in every subsequent definition of the meter.”

Ok. This looks like it’s going to be good.